Flashing Lights Make `Suicide Corner` Worse

When residents near West Atlantic Avenue and Hagen Ranch Road talk about the blinking lights, they may not be referring just to the intersection`s signals flashing on and off.

``This is a suicide corner made worse by the blinking lights,`` complained Hyman Schaffer of Villa Delray. ``There have been at least three accidents recently. This corner is a death trap.``

Abe Perlman of the same area said ``traffic is playing a chess game, second guessing other drivers` moves.`` And what is worse, he said, is that units from the nearby fire-rescue station often are held up because of traffic moving through the intersection.

Traffic counts have been made to determine if there is enough volume to warrant converting the signal to full operation, said Chris Mora of Palm Beach County`s Traffic Division, but the decision is up to Florida Department of Transportation engineers.

-- Like many people who use the Palmetto Park Road interchange with Interstate 95, R.C. Ginieczki of Boca Raton has experienced the tight squeeze at the start of the southbound entrance ramp as drivers trying to get onto I-95 and those trying to go straight often come close to tangling with each other. ``Surely this is a situation that begs for help before someone is seriously hurt,`` he said.

And that`s the truth, say county engineering officials, who are on the verge of approving the widening of Palmetto Park under I-95 and the improvement of the ramps. Construction is expected to get under way this spring.

It is one of the last steps in the extension and widening of Palmetto Park, which started several years ago when the road was carried west across Florida`s Turnpike to U.S. 441.

The bridge itself was widened to accommodate new lanes on Palmetto Park as part of the I-95 expansion completed through most of Boca Raton last year.

-- Weekday drivers going through Palm Beach on State Road A1A -- South Ocean Boulevard -- will encounter delays around the 1800 block for the next two weeks while work crews repair a storm-damaged barrier wall.

The northbound lane of A1A will be closed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., beginning Monday and lasting through Feb. 21, said Barbara Sarff of the Florida Department of Transportation`s Fort Lauderdale district office.

During the times the lane is closed, north- and southbound traffic will be directed through, one direction at a time, by a flag crew on the southbound lane.

-- Turnpike travelers can look forward to continued daytime delays in the area or the new Boynton Beach Boulevard interchange, said Kim Poulton of the turnpike`s Fort Lauderdale office. Traffic between mile posts 86 and 87 will continue to be reduced to a single lane in each direction Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Poulton said.

The lane closings are scheduled to last until the end of May as construction on the new interchange continues, she said. Drivers can expect slow going through the construction area.

-- The safety lane ``rumble strips`` which are now being included as a part of every new construction or resurfacing job on the turnpike also will be added to other parts of the highway.

They are so named because of the rumbling sound inside a vehicle when a car rolls over them.

The decision has been made by turnpike engineers to add them to safety lanes that have been resurfaced within the past year, Poulton said.

``They will be ground into the pavement in these areas where paving has been done fairly recently. There isn`t much sense in waiting 15 or 20 years until they need resurfacing again to put the strips in, even though it`s not as cost-effective to add them to (existing) pavement.`` The strips are seen by highway engineers as an efficient means of reducing off-the-road accidents.

-- Traffic Watch is a regular feature of the Sun-Sentinel. If you have a problem in the area where you drive, or know a good shortcut, write: Traffic Watch, Sun-Sentinel; 3333 S. Congress Ave.; Delray Beach, Fla. 33445, or call the Sun-Sentinel Traffic Line. Dial 243-6543 in southern Palm Beach County. We are sorry, but because of the volume of questions we sometimes receive, we cannot always guarantee a personal reply.